What inspired you to pick this genre? I read Koontz and King but not as much as I used to. I do like true crime if I have to pick a favorite. I don't know if I would make a good editor though.
Vampire stories--and Westerns, my other favorite form of fiction--have underlying moral themes...assuming they aren't strictly action-based. They're morality plays if you will. I find it intriguing that deep moral issues can be discussed in such violent terms. They also touch on many biblical themes as they unfurl themselves.
This story is actually a sequel to one written almost 10 years ago. It has taken this long (along with real-life interruptions) for the various characters to congeal into a story. Curiously, it started with only a premise: the protagonist left almost insane from the previous story's events; coupled with a series of character sketches (of the written sort). I came up with the characters Decimus and Klykos but couldn't out how to get their story-arcs to converge with Lazarus the protagonist.
Well, I've always been a big believer that well-developed fiction has a solid metaphysical foundation. That is why stories like Lord of the Rings succeed and stories like Star Wars fall apart. If a metaphysic isn't internally consistent the events based upon it lose cohesion. In my world I mapped out what made vampires what they are, what gave them their powers and what would foil them. From there I made certain that any supernatural interactions were thoroughly grounded on those assumptions and if it couldn't be justified it wouldn't be written.
For example, in my world all animals have a bipartite nature: a body and the animating spirit; but humans being unique creations have a body, animating spirit and an immortal soul. A vampire, being undead, is a body and the immortal soul but it has lost its animating spirit. This helps explain the need for vampires to consume blood because in Leviticus we are told not to consume blood because in it resides the life of the body. Lazarus is unique in that among his usual vampiric abilities he has the ability to "read" souls (discern what sort of person you are) and even consume a soul as food rather than just the animating essence within blood. Lazarus' progenitor, Antioch, believes this power to be capable of consuming other soul-based creatures as well, namely angels. If Lazarus can consume them then the "Walking Damned" can prevail in the War Against Heaven. To this end Antioch has spent over a century attempting to twist Lazarus' mind but Lazarus wants none of this. In the end of the previous story Lazarus had to consume over a thousand damned souls to foil Antioch's machinations; including the ancient vampire Antioch, himself...but alas souls are immortal. Lazarus has all these souls swimming inside his head and he can't keep them sorted out. He's going insane and all Hell is about to break loose.
The violent imagery stems from the fact that these are creatures that live by violence some of whom are running truck with demons whose only purpose is to despoil Creation itself. Yet, in the first story for all his violence and anti-hero status Lazarus is pursuing the heart of his most beloeved (literally her heart, wrenched from her chest). His love for her is being tested and along the way the nature of damnation--and its corallary--are explored.
The passions, violence and depth of vampires make them a marvellous vehicle for exploring themes regular fiction cannot lend itself to.
